The origin of the trope leads back to ancient Greece at least. One possible theory (besides the king being affected with Pride) is that the messenger was a defeated or losing general's son, and that his death was punishment for failure. It's also such a common cliché that the Evil Overlord List took time to specifically mention it.

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By the way, remember when we told the worst part was bringing your master some bad news? We lied. The worst is bringing someone else a message from your master. Such as an ultimatum. The recipient is guaranteed to reply "Screw Your Ultimatum!" in a non-ambiguous way, and by "non-ambiguous", we mean by sending your head back. Without the rest of your body. Also note that even the "good guys" might do this, especially Anti Heroes. Its depressing regularity in the ancient world led to the first rule of international law: Diplomatic Immunity. In the end, everyone (even Genghis Khan, who destroyed multiple empires) thought it was just a little unfair to the messengers. In fact, Genghis Khan wiped out one of those empires because they killed some of his messengers.

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And because of what we said earlier about how even anti-heroes may get in on the act, if you're in a story featuring Black and Grey Morality, do whatever it takes to get out of delivering a message. If you do wind up having to deliver some bad news or an ultimatum in such a work, your life expectancy is probably slightly shorter than that of a guy standing on top of skyscraper in a thunderstorm who's also saying "What's the worst that could happen?" Guys, the messengers are coming in peace.

Doing this may also be violating a tradition of Sacred Hospitality, which only adds to the sense of outrage it provokes; this was played a role in Genghis Khan's destruction of the Khwarizmi, mentioned earlier.

"I'm just the messenger" is a stock phrase used to remind people that this trope isn't really fair, and is fairly likely to work.

Examples

King Vegeta in a flashback ended up blasting his messenger to smithereens after he reported that they had to wait three days before attacking a planet because of the full moon coinciding around that time. It's implied that he was more irritated that he can't get the job done in good time to keep Frieza off his back than the actual failure.

A henchman of Frieza's arrives to announce that the Ginyu Force has arrived. As soon as he's finished, Frieza promptly vaporizes him with Eye Beams. The worst part for this poor messenger was that the arrival of the Ginyu Force was good news for Frieza, seeing as they were his men. His most elite warriors, at that. Frieza said his reason for doing so was because he didn't need him anymore.

Babidi wants revenge on Piccolo, Trunks, and Goten and has Majin Buu start destroying cities until they show themselves. Since Babidi doesn't know who they are, he gives a general description to the citizens while demanding they give them up. A World Martial Arts Tournament staff member named Marvin recognizes the description and reveals the three heroes' names. Babidi calls him a fool and says he doesn't care what their names are before killing the guy on the spot.

Cat Planet Cuties does this in the first episode when Aoi shoots a messenger... or, rather, shoots in the general direction of a messenger. She purposely missed, just because she felt like scaring the crap out of the dude. Though this was less because she was upset with the message he brought and more with the fact that he'd dickishly brought it to her in broad daylight, violating contact protocol and interrupting the nice time she'd been having with Kio.

In Hellsing, Alucard blasts Schrödinger when he comes as a messenger to a Hellsing conference (of course, Schrödinger survives that, thanks to his "quantum physics" abilities).

In Lupin III: Dead or Alive, General Headhunter's opinion seems to be that this trope is "cut the head off of the messenger". Not even for bringing him unexpected news: just bringing the news that he might already expect is dangerous if he's already in a bad mood.

In Saint Seiya Omega, Pallas gets so angry when she's told that one of her generals has disobeyed her orders that she vaporizes the unfortunate Mook who is reporting the situation to her. The poor man tries to tell her that he's only informing her of what he saw, to no avail.

Comic Books

In Asterix and the Goths, Metric tells his interpreter that if their Gaulish captive, Getafix, will not show them magic, the interpreter will be killed as well. When Getafix refuses, the interpreter lies, not realizing that Getafix speaks Gothic.

A running theme for years was goons working for The Kingpin were in mortal fear of having to deliver bad news to their boss, as Wilson Fisk was infamous for killing anyone at the slightest provocation.

Averted in an issue of The Punisher when one guy has to relate how the Punisher escaped a trap.

In the Belgian series Papyrus, the Pharaoh sent the titular character to announce a string of bad news to the King of Crete: his son died and the Cretan diplomatic envoy perished in a sea storm, along with a sacred bull given as an offering. Angered and outraged, the King punished Papyrus to the arena.

Defied in The Sandman. Morpheus sends a messenger to Lucifer that he intends to travel To Hell and Back to free Nada's soul. Knowing that Lucifer will Shoot the Messenger, he sends the Biblical Cain as his envoy, since Cain is marked by God and not even the forces of Hell can kill him. Lucifer still manages to hurt and terrify Cain, but notes that anyone else would have returned "with his liver in his mouth".

Death, personally, dislikes this trope, feeling that on the long run, it only means less mail.

Donald Duck once took a job as a messenger and the first person he delivered a message to was so furious she started throwing stuff at him. It wasn't the matter of the news being good or bad. She just hated the sender and took it out on Donald.

In issue 10 of the IDW Popeye series, Wimpy goes to tell Popeye that Olive Oyl and Toar may be having an affair, but before he can do so, Popeye, who was earlier blown off by Toar and Olive, says, "Lissen — I ain't got no pals an' I ain't got no sweetie! An' th' next swab what brings me bad news is goner get a punch in the kisser!" Wimpy wisely chooses not to say anything.

Black Moon Chronicles: Very common in this setting. When one faction sends a messenger to another faction, they usually end up dead.

One of Ghorghor Bey's men is turned into a frog by the master of a sorcerer's stronghold after demanding their surrender.

Fratus Sinister and his corrupt cronies at the head of the order of the Knights of Justice shoot (with arrows) upwards of 20 imperial messengers one after the other. A variation in that they're shot before they even deliver the message, as Sinister want to keep plausible deniability as to why he didn't commit his forces to the absolutely massive battle taking place against the Big Bad's decoy forces (Fratus wants to take over the Empire, see). This bites him in the ass later on, as the savvy emperor isn't fooled, and Fratus gets a humiliating demotion from the Empire's aristocratic pecking order.

Wismerhill and his friends respond to a representative of the empire demanding that they hand over the Barony of Moork to its newly appointed lord by having the messenger roasted by a baby dragon and served up for dinner—their own, not the dragon's.

Parodied in an early strip. Prior to giving his presentation, one of Dilbert's superiors assures him that they "don't shoot the messenger". Dilbert then proceeds to tell them the bad news that their idea is doomed to failure with Brutal Honesty, adding that they will probably be mocked for their stupidity and fired. One of them actually pulls out a machine gun begging to be allowed to wing Dilbert, but is reminded that they "don't shoot the messenger". Instead, they tar and feather him.

Also referenced in a comic strip involving a "Scape Goat", literally. He is shot by the PHB, who clarifies he was aiming for the messenger. Dilbert suggests it was the Scape Goat's fault for standing there.

Subverted in a regularly recycled Beetle Bailey gag: The officers receive a written order from the general, and it has one obvious spelling error that changes the meaning completely. Someone will point out what the general probably meant to say, but then someone else will always ask: "But who dares to tell the general that he made a mistake?" While the general probably wouldn't shoot anyone for pointing out one little spelling error (probably...), the answer is always the same: Nobody dares to tell the general that he made a mistake. They prefer to follow out the order, exactly the way it's written, and look like idiots, rather than telling the general to make a correction.

In a Calvin and Hobbes strip, Calvin lampshades this trope when he is sent to the principal's office for shouting "BORING!" to his teacher's lecture.

Lampshaded in The Wizard Of Id. The King, aware that his incompetent knight Sir Rodney is bringing news of his defeat, reminds him of the old Roman custom in which those bringing good news were rewarded with wine, women and song, whereas the bearer of bad tidings was put to death. A sweating Rodney replies with the 'joyous' news that one of the King's more awful provinces with its rebellious peasants, stinking swamps (etc, etc) has been given to the Huns to worry about.

In the scene involving Freeza, the henchman comes in, reports on the arrival of the Ginyu Force, and Freeza seems content to let him be, but then the henchman also announces that due to Freeza's tendency to kill them on a whim, the rest of his men have decided to form a union. Freeza says that decision is "Adorable" in a mildly amused voice, then promptly kills the henchman without even turning to face him.

In another episode, a messenger doesn't even get to say what the news is before Freeza blasts him. Freeza was just looking for a way to get out of the awkward conversation he was having with his minion Zarbon (where it looked like he was going to have to admit that he thought Zarbon was gay).

King Vegeta, meanwhile, kills his messenger out of annoyance when he feels the messenger gave a smart-mouth, Mathematician's Answer to a question King Vegeta asked.

In Enemy of My Enemy, Brute High-Chieftain Torikus does this a lot, and he does it very brutally. One scene describes an unfortunate messenger's skull fragments spread across the area around Torikus after a particularly bad development for the Brutes.

The Sun Soul: In chapter 22, during the Celadon Civil War, Mayor Vicar sends a messenger to Princess Erika's side, telling them to surrender. If Erika's side loses, there will be no mercy for them — so they had better surrender now while they still can. Brock, on Erika's side, steps forward, yells 'IF!', and signals his army to attack. The messenger ends up with two big ugly arrows protruding through his chest, promptly falls off his Rapidash, and dies. Quite literally a case of Shoot the Messenger.

Niles Nigellus: Good manners are essential for a messenger. It gains us access to reluctant destinations and wins us favor with hesitant recipients. Not to mention it saves us from the wrath of bad news.

In Shinra High SOLDIER, Tseng shoots a messenger who merely reported that Julia, Sephiroth, and Reno should report to Hojo to get new mako injections. He's just injured, but Tseng forbids him from seeking medical attention until he returns to deliver a counter-message to Hojo.

In A Protector's Pride, Zommari arrives to tell Cazador (Hollow Ichigo) that Orihime is being held prisoner in Hueco Mundo. Cazador thanks him and then attempts to kill him. However, Zommari is too fast for him and easily escapes.

In 300, King Leonidas and the Spartans execute a Persian messenger and his armed escort for insulting their kingdom while bringing Xerxes' demand for "earth and water" as a token of submission to the empire, telling him that he'll find plenty of both down in the well, where they then proceed to throw them down. Which is kicked off (literally) by Leonidas yelling "This! Is! SPARTA!" The best part? The real Leonidas actually did this. Leonidas did give him a fair warning, though, pointing out that he may be a messenger, but, in Sparta, each man is responsible for his own words.

In keeping with Road to Perdition's Black and Gray Morality, Michael Sullivan does this to a messenger sent to bribe him out of revenge. For reference, the messenger was completely unarmed and nonthreatening. Of course, given that Michael himself had been set up for a Please Shoot the Messenger situation by the guys the messenger is representing less than 10 minutes earlier in the film, and that the messenger in question was sent to represent the interests of the Psychopathic Manchild responsible for the deaths of his wife and son... his reaction is somewhat understandable.

In Blood Simple., Julian Marty tells Loren Visser about the ancient Roman practice of killing the Bearer of Bad News when the PI delivers photos of Marty's wife and her lover in flagrante delicto. Not only does Visser laugh off the posturing, he casually (later on) inverts the trope.

Parodied in Robin Hood: Men in Tights, in which the gaoler mentions that "good news is always rewarded and bad news is severely punished." Guess which kind he ends up delivering...

Lampshaded in Beerfest. Only instead of shooting the messenger, they sidestep the technicality by suffocating him with beer hoses.

In The Warlords film starring Jet Li as Pang Qingyun and Andy Lau as Zhao Erhu, a new army called Shan led by the two main characters are sent on a mission with inferior numbers to attack and claim the territory of a much larger army with much more weapons and firepower. The odds are against them, and the opposing army sends a messenger to tell General Zhao that the odds are against them and they can't win. The General pulls out his sword and slices the the messenger's neck without a word, then he and his men charge in for the attack. Chop The Messenger?

Clue the movie is all about this. Wadsworth points out directly that "everyone who's died gave vital information about one of [the guests]." Ironically, the last informant who is killed is a delivering a singing telegram shot at the front door.

Draco Malfoy: Excuse me, Professor, perhaps I heard you wrong. I thought you said "the four of us." Professor McGonagall: No, you heard me correctly, Mr. Malfoy; you see, honourable as your intentions were, you too were out of bed after hours. You will join your classmates in detention. [the protagonists stare at each other in disbelief that Malfoy also got in trouble]

In this case, not only was there no actual shooting, but also the messenger was more of an informant who got punished for breaking the same rules he snitched about.

This sets off the plot of The Duellists. An officer is sent to inform another officer that he's been placed under house arrest for dueling. He feels he's been insulted and challenges that officer to a duel, leading to an ongoing feud that lasts for decades.

Hawk the Slayer. Hawk fatally injures Drogo, but spares a couple of his soldiers to carry him back to his father Voltan. The grieving father kills them both the moment his son dies. In fairness, he does insist they be armed first.

Voltan: My son lies dead, and yet you live. Give them weapons! It is fitting that my son dies with dogs at his feet!

A non-lethal version occurs in A Bridge Too Far. An intelligence officer discovers that German tanks have been deployed in the Arnhem area. When he brings this to the attention of his superiors, he's politely told that he's been working too hard and put on sick leave.

Literature

This is an old trope that appears in medieval literature. For example, in the Beatrix version of the old French chanson de geste La Naissance du chevalier au cygne (12th century), the evil crone Matabrune, infuriated by the bad news brought to her by a spy, merely a young boy, kills him with her knife in front of her disapproving court.

Happens so many times in Romance of the Three Kingdoms that it's eventually Lampshaded when Liu Bei writes a letter to Guan Yu to inform him of where he was, "but there was no one to take it." Then there's this exchange years and many chapters later...

"When two countries are at war, their emissaries are not slain," said Lu Su. "Messengers are slain to show one's dignity and independence," replied Zhou Yu. The unhappy bearer of the letter was decapitated, and his head sent back to Cao Cao by the hands of his escort.

In a Wing Commander novel, Prince Thrakhath forced a messenger to commit ritual suicide. Semi-justifiable because the reason was not because of the bad news, but the way the messenger delivered it, running through the ship and looking distressed, which would cause rumors and morale problems. Once Fridge Logic kicks in though, you wonder why a messenger is needed on a space ship rather sending the message electronically, and realize the scene exists solely to show that Thrakhath is the type to Shoot the Messenger.

Averted in the Island in the Sea of Time series by S.M. Stirling. Magnificent Bastard William Walker is approached by a nervous messenger who's clearly bringing news of disaster. Walker calmly explains to the messenger that he's not going to harm him, but when something bad happens he's got to know right away, or else it's like being blind.

But in Order of the Phoenix, before Voldemort started to lose his cool, he responded to the news that his plan to steal a prophecy from the Ministry of Magic could not have worked by thanking the messenger and promising to keep him in confidence. The man who furnished him with flawed information, however, gets the Torture Curse...

This is taken to the next level in the backstory of The Curse of Chalion; a crazy enemy general tells the messengers that one of them will have to kill the other. Cazaril refuses to take part, denying the villain his fun, but the other messenger, Dondo, tries to go through with it. The general stops it, and releases them both, knowing that Dondo's frantic attempts to hide the truth of his cowardice will do more to Cazaril than he could.

In Ravenloft novel Knight of the Black Rose, Strahd and a rival Dark Lord send servants that they are displeased with to carry messages to each other, knowing that the messengers will be tortured horribly and eventually executed by the other dark lord.

In Manzoni's The Betrothed, the Podest&atilde&; and Count Attilio have an argument about chivalry, Attilio thinks it's legal and moral to beat a messenger who carries bad news, especially if the message is the challenge to a duel.

Close to the end of The Pilo Family Circus, the accountant makes the mistake of delivering a letter to Kurt Pilo during his Villainous Breakdown. Ironically, the note was actually good news, containing the names of all the members of the Freedom Movement, but Kurt wasn't in the mood to read it until after he'd ripped the accountant's head off.

Towards the end of Rise of the Horde, one of Thrall's human spies arrives to Orgrimmar to bring news of the arrival of the draenei. While pondering the (terrible) news, Thrall notices that the man is shaking in fear and realises he is afraid of getting killed. He orders his guards to get him food and water while musing about how unwise killing messengers is, for it only causes people to hide the bad news until too late. Granted, Thrall isn't a villain, but most orcs are seen as such by humans.

Magatha, on the other hand, plays this straight in The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm, killing the orc who brought her a message from Garrosh saying that he won't support her because he found out that she poisoned his weapon during his duel with Cairne. She even seizes the letter rather than let him read the letter aloud after the first indication of Garrosh's refusal.

After getting news from a minion that her ex-lover had slept with someone else, Lanfear tears the messenger's skin off and goes on a magical rampage.

Inverted when a messenger from Sammael hears Rand say no to an offer of truce. The messenger then starts oozing blood from every pore and dies. One person wonders how the bad guy will know what Rand's answer was, another says, "Very likely how he died will let him know."

Chevette Washington, a bicycle messenger in William Gibson's Bridge Trilogy, mentions this trope frequently. She's never shot, but she clarifies that the basic idea — blaming a messenger for her message — is true.

In The Sword of Truth, Prince Harold is killed for delivering the message that his sister the queen intended her for country remain neutral. By the good guys, of course. And his half-sister thanked her allies for doing it, because they can't show mercy to their "enemies".

In one of Stephen King's more down-to-earth short stories, a rival gang leader sends a messenger to insult another's gang leader by taunting his sister (who's obese) so they can draw him out. The messenger is obviously scared to the point of tears while saying 'yo mama' jokes right in the man's face, but luckily is not killed. The gang leader still got himself killed rushing recklessly into the open to kill the sender (which prompts his sister to go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge). Subverting the trope further, said obese sister later gets revenge on the message sender himself by killing him slowly with a metal wire through the eye.

In Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series, this is inverted in that messengers bearing good news will be "much caressed" by the Powers That Be back in England. (Given how the series works, that makes this Truth in Television.) Stephen Maturin then uses his powers of persuasion to see to it that Aubrey, though screwed out of his victory by a spotlight-stealing admiral, still gets chosen as the messenger and thus gets a plum command.

Wess Roberts, PhD. wrote a non-fiction business advice book, "Business Secrets of Attila the Hun", which included this nugget; "A wise chieftain does not kill the messenger who delivers bad news. He kills the messenger who fails to deliver bad news."

Inverted in Solo Command. General Melvar has to bring Zsinj some very bad news: not only has a deathtrap failed to kill Wraith Squadron (or even any of its members), but they have managed to take one of his key personnel alive. Zsinj has an epic Villainous Breakdown where he destroys practically everything in his office but the person who brought him the bad news.

General Melvar: Will you be wanting your office restored, or do you wish to redecorate?

Towards the end of Eldest, the second book in Inheritance Cycle, a messenger arrives from The Empire's troops and orders the members of the Varden to surrender or "suffer the doom of your herald," then presents the severed head of the Varden's messenger. Eragon asks Nasuada if he should kill him, but Nasuada replies that she will not violate the sanctity of envoys, even if the Empire has. Shortly after, Eragon's dragon Saphira lets loose a mighty roar and the Empire's messenger is knocked off his steed, then roasted in a burst of flame that erupts forth from the Burning Plains.

Animorphs: Visser Three, all the goddamn time. This actually works to the heroes' advantage; as no-one wants to tell the Visser something that might set him off, his underlings frequently omit useful info out of self-preservation.

Chapman: Visser Three, wrong? Maybe. But I'm not the fool who's going to try and tell him that. Chapman:(in another book) Tell Visser Three? Tell Visser Three? No one tells Visser Three. People who tell the Visser something he doesnt want to hear end up cut off from Kandrona rays, slowly starving, dying inside their hosts...

Subverted in The Dresden Files novel Ghost Story by a Fomorian servitor named Listen. He expressly demonstrates awareness of this trope and gave zero fucks about either outcome. If he lives, he can continue serving his inhuman master. If he is killed, his master has plenty more to replace him. The mad necromancer to whom he was delivering the message let him live precisely because he genuinely didn't care whether he lived or died.

In The Otherworld Series, Queen Lethesanar rips out the hearts of some messengers who report a prisoner's escape.

In Sandy Mitchell's Ciaphas Cain novel The Greater Good, Cain is stopped on the battlefield by a tau soldier to carry a message. He's glad that he'll survive since they are unlike to shoot their messenger — now he just has to worry about whether the general to receive it will. (Not for bad news, this time; for treason.)

According to Gesta Danorum, King Gorm of Denmark vowed he would kill anyone who brought him the message that his favourite son Knut was dead. When Knut is killed, nobody dares to tell Gorm. Queen Thyra has the royal hall hung with black cloth and when Gorm asks about the reason for this, she replies that his favourite falcon has died. Gorm immediately understands the true sense of her words, without anyone having to tell him.

Mentioned, but explicitly Subverted, in The Tamuli. Berit and Khalad discuss the idea while they are in disguise, drawing attention from Sparhawk. Khalad offends a messenger, and mentions the idea of shaking him down to A) prove a point about manners, and B) see if he has the next message they are supposed to receive. When Berit objects, mentioning that their enemies might kill Queen Ehlana, Khalad posits that they could easily kill each messenger without reprecussion, and are probably confusing the enemy by not doing so.

Harming envoys is regarded as taboo, so when one of Queen Daenerys' dragons singes the robe of an impertinent emissary, this is used as propaganda against her, saying she had the man burnt alive.

Tyrion sends an envoy with an armed escort to negotiate peace terms including the release of his brother Jaime. Hidden among the escort are several men with the skills to break Jaime out of his cell. When the escape fails, Lord Edmure has all those who participated hung from the walls of his castle, and the rest thrown into the dungeons.

The King Beyond the Wall sends a messenger inviting Craster to join his army (which of course would mean submitting to his authority). Craster sends back the man without his tongue, which he nails to his wall.

The lynchpin of Aegon's Conquest of Westeros according to The World of Ice & Fire. Initially, Aegon aimed to cement an alliance with King Argilac Durrandon of the Stormlands by offering an Arranged Marriage between his daughter and Aegon's bastard half-brother Orys. The outraged Argilac removed the hands of Aegon's messenger and said "these are the only hands your bastard would have of me". Aegon decided that the time of dialogue was over, declared that Westeros is his and demanded all the petty kings to submit to him or face destruction.

Windhaven's folklore gives us the Mad Landsman, who murdered the messenger who told him of his son's death. Unfortunately (for him), the messengers in this universe are the primary means of communication, and when they boycott his kingdom, it withers away. Don't screw with the union.

The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees by E. Lily Yu. When the wasps move into the bees territory, the latter send an ambassador with an ultimatum — the bee is executed and its stinger sent back to the hive. The bees send another ambassador who attempts negotiation. The wasps rip out her stinger and allow the bee to stagger back to the hive and die. Then an elderly bee arrives with her stinger encased in a ball of wax. After hearing the terms of surrender, she begs the wasps to wait a few days for her to die before imposing them. They refuse.

Played with in The Outrider series by Richard Harding. An old enemy sends an assassin to kill the hero Bonner, but actually to reveal that I Have Your Wife. Bonner only realises this after he examines the man's vehicle and finds there's not enough petrol for the return journey. They're in a Scavenger World and the Big Bad knew that Bonner would get the best of his assassin, so why waste petrol?

Angel: After taking over Wolfram & Hart, Angel sends a lawyer to inform a powerful necromancer that they won't be supplying him with fresh corpses anymore. Said lawyer is returned in three buckets. A Justified Trope as he was trying to either scare Angel off or anger him into a direct confrontation.

Arrested Development: In season 1 episode 9, Lindsay Bluth Fünke makes this a Discussed Trope when she advises her brother Michael Bluth not to be the bearer of bad news to his love interest. Her exact words: "It's called 'Shoot the Messenger'."

A vampire goes to a bar and informs all the monsters there that Buffy is M.I.A., so the town of Sunnydale is largely unprotected. The leader of a demon biker gang thanks him, then casually rips his head off his shoulders with his bare hands, simply because he asks to ride with them and demons just don't like vampires.

Despite having spent most of the episode talking instead of fighting Buffy kills Holden Webster after he drops the bombshell about Spike siring him, even though Spike has a soul and an inhibitor chip that should prevent him from harming humans. Due to a scene cut we don't see if it was because Holden attacked or in a violent response to what he said, but Buffy's position as Holden's dust swirls around her is the same, implying that it happened immediately afterwards.

Mal: Now... this is all the money Niska gave us in advance — Second, Smarter Goon: Oh, I get it! I'm good. Best thing for everyone. I'm right there with you!

Revolution: In the episode "Home", Monroe had a messenger sent to tell Miles to come to the town of Jasper alone, or he'll kill everyone there, starting with Miles's high-school fiance Emma Bennett. The messenger's ultimate fate is not stated, but considering that the main characters had to torture the contents of the message out of the guy, his survival is quite unlikely.

In "Spartacus: Vengeance", this is how Ashur is killed. The Big Bad sends him to give offer a deal to the good guys. If they had accepted, they would have needed to let the messenger return, but they refuse the offer and only send back the messenger's head. The Big Bad isn't surprised, but he was getting tired of having the guy around anyway.

In "Spartacus: War of the Damned", when the rebels capture the city of Sinuessa en Valle, a guard manages to escape, find the Roman army, and inform them of what happened. Even though it is pointed out he did the smart thing because if he had stayed, he would have surely been killed and the army would not have learned of the takeover, Julius Caesar angrily calls him a coward and kills him on the spot.

Star Trek: Voyager: Referenced in the episode "Relativity". Commander Chakotay approaches Captain Janeway with a ship's status report and Janeway comments "Before you say anything, let me remind you what happens to bearers of bad news." "Don't kill the messenger," replies Chakotay, holding up his hands in mock fear. Janeway relents and Chakotay proceeds to report on the sorry state of Voyager and its systems.

In season 4 of The Celebrity Apprentice, Marlee Matlin's sign language interpreter got his head bitten off a few times while interpreting for Marlee during arguments with her fellow contestants.

The Vampire Diaries: Damon Salvatore explicitly states that he believes in shooting the messenger for the express purpose of sending a message to the person sending the bad news, if that person is his enemy.

Horrible Histories: There's a sketch where courtiers are forced to carefully tiptoe around Henry VIII when it comes to matters like his latest marital issues. Two courtiers have found out about Catherine Howard's infidelities. Knowing that they can be put to death if Henry is in a bad mood, they have Will Somers, the court jester, break the news in the form of a comedy routine. When he comes back out, he says it should be effective in three, two, one.....cue Henry calling for the courtiers to fetch his executioner.

Rome. In the first season, Marc Antony makes a point of punching a Smug Snake messenger into a pool after he (eventually) decides to refuse his offer to betray Caesar. In Season 2, Marc Antony bullies Cisero into making him governor of Gaul. On the day the motion is to be passed Cicero fails to turn up at the Senate, instead sending a speech to be read into the rolls, a denunciation of Antony that's so insulting the other senators immediately flee the room. The trembling speaker is told to finish reading the speech by an outraged Antony, who then beats him to death with the scroll.

I, Claudius. After Emperor Claudius' wife commits adultery and treason, Claudius' advisers worry this will happen to them, so they choose a courtesan who's a favorite of the emperor to deliver the initial bad news, before nervously entering the room to confirm what she's saying.

"In the Blood": With Matt Murdock causing problems for the Russian gang, Anatoly and Vladimir Ranskahov decide to accept Wilson Fisk's offer of support to their criminal venture. After seeing that Matt has made short work of the guys who had kidnapped Claire, Anatoly personally goes to Fisk to tell him that he accepts the deal....and ends up interrupting Fisk's date with Vanessa. Fisk is so pissed off by this intrusion of his privacy that he proceeds to beat Anatoly unconscious, then decapitate him with a car door. Then Fisk sets in motion the machinations to eliminate the rest of the Russians, including Vladimir.

"Reunion": Wilson Fisk beats one of his own dirty FBI agents to death for telling him that Ray Nadeem has gone rogue and helped Karen Page escape from Dex.

Luke Cage (2016): Played for Laughs when Koko suggests that Cottonmouth use "benign neglect" on Luke Cage, who has just taken over 80% of his money. After Koko gives this big speech about practicing it, Cottonmouth just pulls out a gun and shoots him in the head.

Blake's 7. In "Volcano", Servalan has secretly landed on a neutral planet, and orders two men sent to her with a message from a local traitor killed so they won't tell anyone of their presence. In fairness the stakes were pretty high, as there was a Doomsday Device on the planet which the locals had threatened to detonate if the Federation attempted a landing.

Music

In his song "Message Boy", Charlie Peacock contends that as a messenger it is his job to deliver both good news and bad news. A line from the song is "all I ask is remember, I am only the message boy."

Myths & Religion

Apollo turning the raven black because it brought him bad news in Greek mythology. Except on those websites which say it was Athena.

Tabletop Games

The Skavens in Warhammer. Skaven leaders usually kill the messengers, always the messengers of bad news.

Very often played straight by Chaos in Warhammer 40,000, but actually Averted by the Dark Eldar: Scourges (individuals who have been modified to have wings) are highly valued by the various kabals for being couriers as well as flying troops, so the kabals tend to come down hard on anyone who makes a habit of messing with them.

Sophocles' Antigone has a messenger who spends a long time trying to avoid giving Creon bad news out of fear that this trope will be played straight, even pointing out that Polyneices was only technically buried. In the end Creon merely threatens to torture him to death. By the standards of ancient Greek tragedy, the scene is very funny.

Roodaka, a major villain of one arc, receives some bad news, and grabs the messenger by the throat.

Roodaka: Take heart. You know that old saying "Don't kill the messenger"? *murders messenger* Too bad. I always kill the messenger.

Makuta Icarax threatened to do this to Vican several times when the Shadow Matoran was ordered by the other Makuta to send a message for him to come to Karda Nui. Vican was well aware that this would probably happen, considering all the stories he heard about Icarax. Luckily for him, Icarax just settles for roughing him up before telling him to go back to Karda Nui and tell the others he's coming.

Icarax: You stand before me without announcing your presence. I could have killed you for that. I still might. *starts to strangle Vican with a shadow tendril when he takes too long to get over his fright and speak* You have exactly five seconds to tell me what it is you find so important to say. After that...

Video Games

In Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, the three-country Laguz Alliance sends a messenger to the Begnion senators demanding answers to a crime they are accused of namely, the Serenes Massacre. This trope, then big war.

In the Telltale Games version of Back to the Future, George McFly implies delivering bad news to Citizen Brown is a very bad idea. However, given that even in an Orwellian timeline he's still incorruptibly good, it's highly unlikely he'd take any steps past yelling without good reason.

In Colonization, other Europeans present in the New World will honour your scouts and allow them to perform diplomatic actions, even if they are at war with you (except for the Royal Expeditionary Force, naturally). Meanwhile, if you are at war with any native group, they will kill any scout sent to their settlements.

In the first Shogun: Total War, if the rival faction you're sending an emissary to really hates your guts, your emissary may come back to you missing everything from the neck down.

In the game Castles 2, you can do this to any messenger of any count (and the Pope). Killing them got you into bad blood with the opposite party, but threatning to kill them and then letting them go lets you off scott free.

A Team Fortress 2 comic reveals that the RED team is rather guilty of this.

The Administrator: First off gentlemen, let me thank you for shooting yet another messenger. And when you kill the messengers, they can't return their miniature televisions, which it may surprise you to learn don't grow naturally on their chests. I have to buy them.

Averted in Final Fantasy IV. When Kain delivers the message to Cecil that Golbez will trade the Earth Crystal for Rosa's life, the messenger is allowed to leave unharmed, and before that, the white flag raised by the enemy airship is respected.

Bale: Dispose of this idiot. Cultist: Why? How have I failed? Sindri: You were stupid enough to personally deliver ill news to Lord Bale. And we cannot abide stupidity.

Dragon Age II: During the quest "Offered and Lost", Seneschal Bran explains he hasn't told the Arishok his delegate's gone missing because "I'd be signing the messenger's death warrant." Sure enough, if you decide to inform him yourself...

Hawke: I'll probably regret this, but you should know your delegate is missing. Arishok: Anyone else, and those words would have been their last.

In the opening cinematic of DiabloII: Lord of Destruction, Baal and his army approach the gates of Sesscheron. A lone herald is sent out to address him. The herald eventually musters up his courage and defiantly refuses Baal entry to the city and declares that he will never reach Mount Arreat and the Worldstone. Baal's response is to calmly tell him he will take his proposal "into consideration". He then summons tendrils of demonic energy that go inside the herald and make him pop like a grape. Baal then mockingly says "it seems your terms...are not acceptable." And laughs and laughs as his army storms the city.

Assassin's Creed: Syndicate takes this trope literally. After Jacob kills Pearl Attaway, Big Bad Crawford Sterrick (who had a thing for her) is seen mourning her by performing a sad song on the piano. When a servant enters the room to give him an update, he barely gets one word out before Sterrick blows his head off.

Sterrick: "I TOLD YOU NOT TO INTERRUPT ME!!!"

The Hitman games do this from time to time.

In certain missions, it's actually possible to knock out/kill messengers for their clothes.

In Hitman (2016) an unnamed antagonist shoots an unidentified businessman after he is given "the key".

With the Extended DLC for Mass Effect 3, if you shoot the Catalyst, it answers back in a booming voice "SO BE IT" and decides that you have rejected its choices, thus causing an "ending" that is functionally a Non-Standard Game Over.

Raid World War II has cutscenes that play when you strike a successful blow against the Nazi war machine. All involve Adolf Hitler throwing a tamper tantrum including one where he yells at the guy bringing him the report to get out and then throwing a hand grenade at him, before realizing he's not at a safe distance and diving for cover. It's oddly satisfying.

In Fallout: New Vegas, Caesar has made it clear in no uncertain and very violent terms that couriers and traders in his realm are to be left the hell alone. As the player character are themselves a Courier, depending on how you play, this can bite him squarely in the ass.

Visual Novels

Prosecutors from the Ace Attorney series have a habit of punishing the salaries of police officers who bring them bad or unwanted news — sometimes even just for bothering them at all when they're busy. Series Butt-Monkey Detective Gumshoe has the loss of his ever dwindling salary and resulting Perpetual Poverty as a Running Gag.

Web Comics

Kid Radd, Crystal will zap anyone who gives her any news, good or bad, "because it's fun." Note that she does not kill them. She'd run out of messengers that way, and well, when that happens, how else will she entertain herself?

Genocide Man: At one point, the head of the Genocide Project, Kevin (who is also a Genocide Man himself), killed a scientist with his bare hands for bringing him bad news before tea, with Lola only finding out when she asks why exactly they're taking vital strategic information to her instead. This is the last straw for her, and she decided Kevin had outlived his usefulness, taking him out immediately afterwards.

When Satan sends his Heralds to Earth to deliver the scrolls proclaiming their damnation, mankind generally responds to their arrival with violence. This has less to do with actually shooting the messenger and more "Holy shit there's a fifteen-foot tall demon coming this way KILL IT!" Except in Singapore, where the police shot the messenger dozens of times and beat it to death with the butts of their guns for littering when it threw the message scroll on the pavement.

One US president advisor points out that killing the demonic Heralds, who were effectively diplomats, was a war crime. However, President Bush countered that the the US has never signed any treaties with Hell, so it isn't a war crime.

Interesting variation in Armageddon???. A demon bringing bad news typically isn't shot: he's eaten by the demon he brought the news to. Not surprisingly, the priority of these messengers is try and avoid getting offed. Whether or not the one they report to is hungry seems to be part of the equation, however.

The one exception are Satan's own Greater Heralds, who were protected from all harm. The fact that the humans killed his Heralds is a sticking point.

Also inverted with Yahweh, wherein his general Michael-lan deliberately attempts to phrase the bad news he gives in such a way so as to cause Yahweh to throw the most spectacular temper tantrums possible, complete with multi-colored flashes of lightning that rip the marble facing from the walls (though they never actually seem to kill anybody, Michael included). It's made clear that Michael quite enjoys these displays and is the only one who isn't afraid of them.

Western Animation

In The Simpsons episode "Margical History Tour", Homer plays a Henry VIII who demands so many decapitations the castle runs out of pikes to put the heads on. After one of his servants (Moe) informs him of this, despite knowing what the king usually does to the bearer of bad news, we cut to an empty pike storage room. The king admits he was right, and the servant's detached, but still living head is consoled by such.

Popeye once got a furlough from Navy duties and spent it with his nephews. Their antics were so unbearable that, when he got news about a new furlough, he reacted by shooting the messenger. Literally.

In Futurama episode "Love and Rocket", the Planet Express crew deliver a barrel of candy hearts to Omicron Persei 8 with the message that "Earth loves you thiiiis much!" the chalky-candies taste bad to Omicronians, and the cutesy messages upset them. The crew has to flee the planet chased by battleships.

In an inversion, by Napoleonic times, the bearer of news of a victory was automatically promoted when they reported in with the news. Generals would put some thought into whom they wanted to make the trip back to Parliament, or to the Emperor.

As noted above, the Mongol Empire destroyed the Khwarazmian Empire over exactly that. A Khwarazmian governor abducted a caravan belonging to the Mongol Empire (believing them to be spies), and the Shah followed it up by executing the Mongol emissaries who came seeking reparations. Genghis Khan's response was to erase Khwarazmia from the face of the earth, beginning the Mongol invasions of the Middle East.

The Mongols were actually one of the major forces that prompted this to really become as discredited as it became and diplomatic immunity as respected as it did in the Medieval world, since their response was always but ALWAYS disproportionate. They also respected the diplomatic immunity of foreign messengers carrying messages to them.

However this became an Invoked Trope when Qutuz, the sultan of the Egyptian Mamluks, deliberately killed Mongol emissaries so as to provoke them into an immediate attack, in mid-summer when there wasn't enough water and pasture for their horses. The well-armed Mamluks massacred the weakened Mongol force, putting an end to any serious invasion.

Vlad III of Wallachia (better known as Dracula) once received some Ottoman emmisaries, who due to their religion, refused to remove their turbans. He made certain they could never take them off; nailing them to their heads.

At the opening stage of the Battle of Budapest in December, 1944, Soviet messengers who were delivering the demand from General Malinovsky that the trapped German and Hungarian garrison surrender were shot either on the way or on the return trip. Nobody knows the specifics of the circumstances or if it was intentional or accidental. Regardless, the subsequent battle became particularly brutal and the German defenders of the city were nearly annihilated, along with a large number of trapped civilians.

Those in the island city of Tyre (no longer an island) threw the messengers of a general who really did not wish to spend resources conquering them (he wanted them to ally with him). this general, being Alexander III of Macedon, didn't take kindly to this. Specifically, he laid siege, built a peninsula out to the city, and razed it to the ground.

This is depressingly common for workers in customer service positions (waiters, cashiers, call centers, etc.) Customers who feel that they did not get the service or goods they want often take it out on the poor customer service rep, even when it's management's fault and the rep is just trying to abide by store policies on pain of a write-up or termination.

Any weather reporter or meteorologist has to be prepared for this, especially in the media. Be kind to them. The same goes for any journalist in general.

A real-life aversion was managed by the Anglo-Norman nobility in 1120. William Adelin, the only son and heir of King Henry I had drowned in the White Ship disaster, and none of the nobles dared to break the news to the the short-tempered king. In the end they sent a small boy to do it. Henry couldn't get angry with him, and instead merely broke down in tears.

Some kingdoms in ancient times had treaties with each other that expressly forbid this. Indeed, if the person sent as a messenger by one kingdom to another was not allowed to return home unharmed, it would be considered an act of war.

While overzealous fans and mean spirited trolls towards video game developers and game journalists are nothing new, there are people that will take it to the next level by sending death threats or the like towards anyone that gives a game a bad review or if a game developer does something the fans doesn't like. No Man's Sky, which was in development for a few years, was announced that it wouldn't be able to meet its original release date. The reporter that made the delay known to the public was slammed with death threats for delaying the game, despite the fact that he had nothing to do with the delay at all. When a PR from the developers confirmed that the delay was true, he received death threats as well.

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